Man gets 20 years imprisonment for murder over liquor

Simon Tjooya, the man found guilty of killing another man in a fight over a bottle of liquor, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in the Windhoek Regional Court yesterday.

Tjooya, 29, was convicted of murder with direct intent on February 27 for the death of one Issy Swartz. Swartz died from a stab wound to the chest in Windhoek’s informal settlement of Goreangab on November 3, 2012. Handing down the sentence, Magistrate Elina Nandago said there were no elements of defense when Tjooya fatally stabbed Swartz on the date in question. She further noted that Tjooya had no reasons to kill Swartz.

“The offense committed by the accused amounts to a brutal killing of an innocent man, one that ran away from him but he followed with a knife, stabbed him and took his liquor,” noted Nandago.

Although he denied guilt, the court found Tjooya guilty after a witness testified during the trial that he saw Tjooya stabbing Swartz with a knife in the chest before taking the bottle of liquor from him. During the trial,

Tjooya did not dispute that he took the bottle from Swartz but he denied killing him. One witness took the stand and informed the court that he too ran after Swartz but Tjooya followed Swartz into a shack. He indicated that Tjooya emerged from the shack with a bottle of liquor in one hand and a knife covered in blood in the other hand.

It was revealed during the trial that Swartz’s death emanated from the fact that he ran off with a bottle of liquor. One witness testified that they were hanging out at a local shebeen on the day the incident took place. According to the witness, they all contributed towards the purchasing of the alcohol bottle, which Swartz ran off with.